I’ve just returned to New Zealand after 2 months in Scotland, Paris and Serbia.
In the mountain of mail awaiting me were further letters offering credit from the ASB, to settle the outstanding amount, namely 80 cents, re an account closed six years ago following the death of the account holder.
Regular readers of this Blog will recall I wrote about receiving these and stressed the point this was not an attack on the ASB but was typical of all large organisations totally relying on computers.
This point was further borne out by expensive international postage mail awaiting me at my Glasgow home, including some addressed to a daughter, from the BNZ, containing statements of her bank balance of precisely nothing, hardly surprising as she closed the account when she shifted to Scotland to work in our Glasgow office six years ago. These arrive there regularly.
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And yet they still make billions.
Autumn is probably the best time to be in NZ (Summer is sun-burning hot, Spring is mostly windy and Winter is winter). If I were to leave NZ for two months, Autumn would be the last season I would choose.
Most of this correspondence is symptomatic of any bureaucracy, computers merely do it faster and more efficiently.
Some of it is mandated by out of date legislation. I tried to get the bank to stop sending me paper statements or send me an email statement for one of my accounts and they said they couldn’t do this as sending a paper statement was stipulated by legislation.
So every month the statement dutifully arrives by mail and every month I dutifully tear it up and put it in the recycling bin.
Months after my mother died the rest home where she’d been living forwarded a credit card statement, showing only fees owed. The rest home told me they’d been getting these every month and returning them marked deceased. I phoned the bank and was told I’d have to bring in a death certificate. I said my brother and I had already done that. The response was I’d have to take it in again. I replied that taking it in the first time was enough to close her cheque and savings accounts and if she was dead for them she must be dead for the credit card. The person I was talking to said no, I’d have to bring the certificate in again. I replied that this was very upsetting and was then told the bank would stop the mail. I said thank you and hung up. Months later another statement arrived. I phoned the bank, explained what had happened and was asked to wait for a few minutes while the account was checked. The check showed an instruction to stop mailing statements but nothing about closing the account. I said, I supposed you’re going to tell me to bring in the death certificate to which I was asked if I had a better idea. I said, I did. In the 21st century, the bank must have computer records and be able to check my mother was dead for her cheque and savings accounts and therefore must be dead for her credit card. He asked me to wait, I waited, he came back and said he’d checked, my mother was dead for her cheque and savings accounts and therefore was dead for the credit card, assured me that would be the end of the matter, and it was. I don’t know why it didn’t end when we took the death certificate in or with my first phone call, and I can but hope that practices changed so that people who are accepted as dead for one or two accounts are accepted as dead for them all.
I have a credit of .83 cents from One NZ for an account closed a year ago.
I’ll write to them and ask them to settle the ASB debt.